Bruins Journal: Subban sorry for Thornton injury

Saturday

May 3, 2014 at 7:30 PM

BOSTON — Boston’s Shawn Thornton said that P.K. Subban of Montreal apologized to him after Thornton injured his right knee while attempting to check Subban in front of the Boston bench early in the third period.

Mark Divver Assistant Sports Editor markdivver

BOSTON — Boston’s Shawn Thornton said that P.K. Subban of Montreal apologized to him after Thornton injured his right knee while attempting to check Subban in front of the Boston bench early in the third period.

“Went to go finish my check, [Subban] ducked, kind of hit awkwardly, and a little pain. Had to get it checked before I came back out,” said Thornton, who had to be helped to the Boston dressing room, but finished the game.

“I don’t like people ducking. I think Marchy [Brad Marchand] got about five games for it once. I will say, off the draw he apologized afterwards, so there’s that. I think it’s a dangerous play, personally. But it’s playoffs, it’s hockey, I’m fine, so we’re OK,” said Thornton.

Said Subban: “I don’t know what happened. I just tried to shoot the puck around the zone and I sort of lost my footing there. Obviously you don’t want to see anybody go off hurt but he came back.”

Thornton’s return helped the Bruins, a couple of his teammates said.

“Obviously, he’s a warrior,” said Patrice Bergeron. “It definitely sends the right message to all the guys.”

Said Torey Krug: “It was a nice lift.”

Subban speaks

After the game, Subban commented publicly for the first time on the racist tweets directed at him after he scored the game-winner in Game One on Thursday:

“It’s completely unfair for anybody to point the finger at the [Bruins] organization or the fan base. They have passionate fans here, great fan base and since I’ve been in the league, it’s been awesome. I’ve come to Boston many times, my family has come here, and it’s been great. What people may say on Twitter or social media is not a reflection by any means of the league or the Boston Bruins. So whoever that is, they’ll get dealt with, but it’s completely separate from this league or the Boston Bruins organization,” Subban said.

“I know some of those players personally on that team, like I said, the fan base has been awesome, they are a great bunch of fans. It’s unfortunate when things take away from the great hockey that was played two days ago. It was a fantastic game, great for the league, great for hockey and that’s what we are going to talk about. So I’m happy now that we can just move on,” he said.

“You know what the funny thing is, is that we get stronger as a league, you see how people come together and it’s great. And it’s not just about me, the NHL has tons of players from different backgrounds, from different places around the world, and that’s what makes this league so special and that’s what makes sports so special.”

Not panicking

Even though his team blew a two-goal lead in the final 10 minutes, Montreal coach Michel Therrien said he preferred to focus on the big picture.

“We played really well for 50 minutes even in the third period. The first 10 minutes were almost perfect. There was a bad coverage for the second goal and you need breaks to win hockey games, and this is what they got from [Patrice] Bergeron’s goal. You look at the replay and it’s a bad bounce in front of the net.

“We got some breaks last game and they got the breaks tonight. There is no way to panic and we are going home. We know that it’s going to be a long series, we are ready for that,” Therrien said.

“They poured it on at the end of the game. They got pretty lucky, I thought. They were playing desperate and they found a way to put it in the net. We’ve just got to regroup, realize the situation we’re in, we’re in a good spot, and move forward,” he said.

Lineup moves

The Bruins made a pair of lineup changes on Saturday.

On defense, Andrej Meszaros played in place of Matt Bartkowski and played 16:36. He was credited with an assist on Dan Paille’s first-period goal.

Jordan Caron replaced Justin Florek and played 4:52 on the fourth line with Gregory Campbell and Thornton, while Paille moved up to the third line with Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson.